Nearly five million Black households hit by food stamp cuts

Approximately 4.7 million African American households will see their monthly food stamp allotment dramatically reduced beginning this month. Bread for the World, a non-partisan, Christian citizens’ movement in the United States to end hunger, determined the number of Black households that would be affected by cuts in food stamps with United States Department of Agriculture data.

In 2010, Congress voted to cut $11 billion from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs or SNAP, and the first of three fiscal years of cuts begin this week. During the first fiscal year of the cut, which ends Sept. 30, 2014, $5 billion will be sliced from the program. It is not known how much money will be cut in each of the following two years.

Overall, 47.6 million families will be affected by the cuts to food stamps, reports Washington, D.C.-based Bread for the World. A family of four would lose $36 per month in food stamps, reports Bread for the World.

“This means families will have less money to spend to buy food,” Eric Mitchell, Bread for the World’s director of government relations, tells NorthStar News & Analysis. Bread for the World is now urging Americans to call their congressman and their senators to vote against additional deep cuts to SNAP via the Farm Bill.

The House passed a bill that would cut SNAP by another $39 billion. The cut would kick nearly four million individuals off the program and reduce benefits for thousands more, said Bread for the World officials. The senate bill would cut SNAP another $4 billion.